Lavonia Cultural Center Director Resigns

Lavonia City Manager Gary Fesperman said that Logan Davison informed the city of that decision on Wednesday morning.

Davison was working under a one-year contract that expires at the end of December at a salary of $28,500.

Fesperman said the Lavonia Cultural Center has been losing money the past couple of years to the tune of $30,000 a year and the Lavonia city government is re-evaluating what kinds of events the city can afford to put on in 2014.

Fesperman said that Davison told him that he did not see how he could continue at the Cultural Center with the options the city had laid out for him to look at.

Meanwhile, Davison said the city never offered him a salary or a contract, adding he is just going to look for something else.

This year, Davison produced several musicals, including, “Disney’s Aladdin” and other Disney-owned productions.

Fesperman said that required the city to pay royalties to Disney for the use of their scripts in addition to the other productions costs.

Also, Fesperman said some of the productions put on this past year at the Cultural Center ranged in cost from $6,000 to $8,000 to produce but only brought in about $2,000 in revenue each due to low ticket sales and attendance and the city lost money.

According to Fesperman, Davison told him he did not think that he could make enough money by attempting to run the center on his own based on the attendance at the events the last couple of years.

Davison had earlier posted a notice on the Lavonia Cultural Center’s Facebook page that the Center would close at the end of the month.

Fesperman called that a miscommunication, saying there will be performances like the Land of Spirit next year.

The Lavonia City Manager said the goal now is to find additional ways to make use of the Cultural Center in 2014.

Fesperman said the City will try to put together some activities that can be produced internally with the City only paying any additional costs for sound and lights.

He went on to say the city has not made any decision yet on whether it will look for a replacement for Davison.